Alien Invasion Provides Great Ride Scenery

I had a wonderful ride this morning with Gregg Stern, who introduced me to the Minuteman Bikeway from Somerville to Bedford. Gregg tells me he is fairly novice at serious riding, so I believe his Google number is two. We met at the start of the trail in Somerville a little before 7am and made it to Bedford Depot by 8am (11.5 miles). We stopped and chatted for a few minutes, and I flushed my buffers, before heading back down. We were all done with the entire 23 miles by 9.15am.

As we rode, we noted lots of pretty views especially in the Lexington and Bedford stretches. There were several meadows of beautiful purple wild flowers. I mentioned to Gregg that something this dominant in the scenery is probably an invasive species. I entered invasive purple meadow flower massachusetts into Google, and found I was right. [Photo by Bernd Blossey, courtesy of www.invasive.org.]

This bike trail, like many, is a converted rail line. Thus, the grades are basically 2% or less and this makes it faster and easier than my local Heartbreak Hill rides. It is heartening that even after this, my longest ride to date, I felt fine for the rest of the day hanging out and playing with my seven year-old twins.

Technorati: cycling, invasive species, minuteman bikeway, Gregg Stern

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